Ham on Rye

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, (1982). First edition, 1st printing. #32 of 350 copies. 8vo. 283 pp. Original cream paper boards over yellow cloth, spine label in blue and red, in original acetate dust-jacket. Acetate jacket shows mild edge wear with surface scratches to gloss, rubbing, mild fading. Book is tight, square and firm. Top and bottom panel edges with nicks. Mild fading to spine, slight toning to panel and page edges. Faint pencil price erasure to pre-title page top corner. Interior clean and unmarked. Boldly signed by the author, with doodle of man and beer bottle in black pen on the rear colophon page. Also accompanied is the Ham on Rye promotional broadside/flyer No. 8 [but is actually No.9] (17 x 10 1/16”) printed in four colors on pale yellow paper. Folded into fourths, else near fine.

Dust Jacket: Very Good

Hardcover: Near Fine

“Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski's characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. In 1969, Bukowski accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin and quit his post office job to dedicate himself to full-time writing. He was then 49 years old. As he explained in a letter at the time, "I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy ... or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve."